The Terrace Trail

We were up a little earlier than usual to head out and procure some breakfast before our scheduled 8:00am departure to Sagada with Ferdinand. As it happened he was already waiting for us when we returned from breakfast so we were definitely underway by 8:00am. Just as well too, as his initial estimate of the drive to Sagada being three hours was a tad off - it actually took us almost four and a half. Even with the lesser Sunday morning traffic it still took about 40 minutes to get clear of Baguio, though we did have a fuel stop as well.

The major factors in the driving time were a) there was a lot of hill climbing involved and b) I don't think there was ever a straight piece of road more than about 100 meters long. It would be interesting to know how the actual road distance from Baguio to Sagada (allegedly 151 kms) compares to the "as the crow flies" distance. Of course the trip was fairly scenic, with lots of views of mountains and valleys and lots of terraces on the steep slopes. I didn't worry about getting Ferdinand to stop for photo opportunities because I expect to see a lot of similar, and better, scenes in the days ahead. And let's face it, there usually wan't much room to pull over anyway.

Once in Sagada - having negotiated the worst bits of "road" in the last couple of kilometres where they are obviously still working on completed the concreting of the road - we managed to find our desired hotel without any problem. We had found it on Trip Advisor last night but had been unable to actually book; fortunately getting a room was not a problem.

We arranged to meet Ferdinand at 2:30pm after we had all had a chance to check in to our respective accommodation and get some lunch. Over lunch - at Sagada Brew, one of the few establishments that was not observing the Sabbath - we decided that we'd just do a couple of local walks, so come 2:30pm we just discussed with Ferdinand our plans for the next couple of days and then gave him the rest of the day off.

Looking up Echo Valley

We then set off to do the walk to Echo Point, which also afforded nice views into Echo Valley. Though I have to say that I am not too sure about the actual amount of echo to be had at Echo Point. It was a steep walk down into the valley and then a little bit up the other side to the point where we could see a collection of hanging coffins. These were suspended from the face of a cliff, in what used to be the local custom. These particular ones I don't think would have been any more than 100 years old - and having passed through the local cemetery earlier in the walk we could attest that the traditional practice isn't used much any more.

Hanging coffins

We considered trying to navigate the myriad of unmarked trails along Echo Valley to the Latang Cave and onto the road from there but since it was already late in the day we opted to just retrace our steps to our starting point on the main road.

From there it was a short walk to the small Bokong Waterfalls. The path led off the other side of the main road and across some rice fields to the creek, from which point the falls were only a couple of minutes walk upstream. The falls themselves, though small, were indeed quite pretty. The guide book suggested that the swimming hole at the base of the falls was "refreshing" but we figured that at this time of day with the sun almost set, very light misty rain falling and temperatures in the mid teens, "refreshing" was probably rather understating the reality.

Bokong Waterfalls

Besides, we hadn't brought our swimmers.

Later on, after a very nice dinner at the same establishment that had enjoyed our lunchtime patronage, Laura sadly found out that the promised hot water for our shower was not nearly as hot as she had hoped. However, unlike at our previous lodgings in Baguio, at least it lasted more then five seconds. However, when I had my shower a couple of hours later, it was OK. Then we just had to contend with the many barking dogs and manic cackle coming from the bar down stairs before we could get to sleep.

The next morning we found that the sun must be pretty hard to wake around here - it took the constant crowing of about a dozen roosters at least an hour and a half to rouse the big yellow from its slumber. Not that we could see it behind the leaden skies. The roosters had also failed to rouse the hotel's kitchen staff it seemed - although it supposedly opened at 6:00am they still hadn't even turned the lights on by 7:05am when I arrived. It then took them only 15 minutes to bring my coffee and another 10 minutes after that to bring our breakfasts. Did I mention that we were still the only customers by this time? Thus, although we'd told Ferdinand to be here at 7:30am, it was nearly 7:50am before we were able to leave.

The first of the terraces before was crossed into Banaue Valley

Our plan today was to drive to Banaue (pronounced "Ba-nar-way"), which is regarded as the prime location for viewing the terraced rice fields common in this region. The weather forecast was not very promising but there was hope that the forecast of light rain would ease in the early afternoon. Although it was only about 65kms to Banaue (via Bontoc) the trip took over two hours - such are the windy, mountainous roads in these parts. There were also frequent instances of one lane being closed due to land slips or rock slides or just by road works to either repair the above or upgrade the surface. The forecast light rain duly arrived and at one stage reduced visibility to about 100 metres as we climbed over the ridge to Banaue.

A worker in the terraces

As we started to descend towards Banaue we reached the first of the five viewpoints where you can pull over to see the World Heritage listed terraced rice fields. The weather was reminiscent of our last "viewing day" in Bohol - rain and mist, Sigh! However although the mist obscured the mountain tops we could still see down into the valley and get our first appreciation of the scale of the terraces, We stopped at three of the view points on the way down, which all gave a different perspective on the terraces. Entering Banaue proper we spotted the Tourist Information Centre and stopped to get the low down on the village east of here that is supposed to be very pretty.

What we found is that the village of Bangaan is about 80 minutes away by tricycle - the road being too rough and muddy in places for the likes of our humble two-wheel drive car. We were also advised that the walk from the road into Bangaan was about 30 minutes down and about 60 minutes coming back up. Being at lower elevation than Banaue the chances of a mist-free viewing was also enhanced. So we shelled out the 700 Pesos for the tricycle hire, told Ferdinand to expect us back between 2:00 and 2:30pm, and set off.

Rice fields, en route to Bangaan

There were certainly right about the state of the road. Road works were in progress in a number of spots and in this wet weather those stretches were indeed muddy. And very rough. The estimated travel time was a bit generous though. Even with a few stops for photo opportunities we made it to the head of the path down to Bangaan village in just under an hour. The other positive was that the rain had stopped, though there was no sign of the skies actually clearing.

The village of Bangaan, set amongst the rice fields.

We stayed ahead of schedule on the walk down to the village. The first section was like a continuous (steep) staircase, until you reached the start of the terraced fields where there were just short steps as you moved along the path down towards the village. With a number of photo stops we were in the village in 25 minutes. Except for the nearly-complete change from thatched roofs to corrugated iron roofs Bangaan was still pretty much as it had been for hundreds of years - surrounded by terraced fields on all sides. We chatted with an elderly lady and watched a man pounding rice in a large pestle.

Pounding the rice

I had a go myself but only succeeded in spilling some of the rice - much to the delight of the hovering chooks!

The light rain had returned by the time we set off back uphill to the road. Surprisingly, even with a couple of rest stops to get out breath back we completed the return leg in only 20 minutes. The trip back to Banaue, in light but steady rain but without the photo stops, was also faster than the outward trip. With nearly an hour before we were due to meet Ferdinand we accepted the tourist guide's recommendation for a nearby eatery to have some lunch.

After meeting Ferdinand promptly at 2:00pm we set off on the drive back to Sagada. However, even though there was still light raining falling - contrary to the weather forecast which had suggested it would be clearing by now - we made a point of stopping at all five viewing points on the way up the mountain. Only at the last (and highest) one was the mist significantly masking the view into the valley.

The rice terraces of  Banaue

Overall we could still get a very good appreciation of what was not just a 4,000 your old achievement in farming techniques but an engineering wonder. It is just a pity that the poor weather preventing me from being able to get a good photo to really do it justice.

The drive back to Sagada took just over two hours. We had Ferdinand drop us at the post office / information bureau and arranged for him to pick us up at 9:00am tomorrow to drive to Bontoc. On the walk back to our hotel we stopped in at the Lemon Pie Shop recommended in the guide book, but our assessment was that the feature dish was rather bland and disappointing. Later at our hotel's restaurant we noted the pasta dishes were listed as being for two people but had no trouble finishing off one each.

Unfortunately the day ended with a nasty surprise - in the form of an email about our flight home. We were due to depart Manila for Singapore on Philippine Airlines @ 7:30pm on Thursday, where after a 2h:25m stop over we'd board a Scoot Airways flight to Sydney. However - apparently due to the schedule arrival of Pope Francis at Manila Airport @ 5:00pm - our PA flight has been moved back to 9:00pm, which means we now have only 55 minutes to make our connection in Singapore. Not quite the two hour minimum usually suggested. To complicate matters, being without a phone ourselves and being in the boon docks without access to a PA booking agent makes it hard to make alternate plans.

The Maligcong terraces

Meanwhile, after breakfast up the road at the Sagada Brew Cafe, we proceeded with our drive to Bontoc with Ferdinand at 9:00am as planned. No PA agents there either, and the local government Tourist Information Office wasn't open either so we had to track down a council worker to get information about travel to the rice terraces of  Maligcong. We were assured that it was concrete all the way and only 25-30 minutes drive. The drive to the hot springs at Mainit, however, was much more difficult and not recommended unless you had a 4WD. So we decided we'd just visit Maligcong and set off in that direction. Ferdinand stopped a couple of times to ask people for directions and was given estimates of up to 60 minutes for the drive. In the end it actually only took about 20 minutes. Also, the road was concrete all the way as promised but much of it was also very narrow. Fortunately we didn't meet much in the way of oncoming traffic before we reached the end of the road, literally, in Maligcong.

The young workers

The rice terraces at Maligcong were certainly very extensive, and with no mist and rain were easier to admire. The harvest was recently completed though so they were not at their greenest. We were able to walk out away into the terraces to get a better view. We also saw a number of young children hauling large bags of bottles (glass and plastic). When we walked back to the car a local lady had a chat to us and we found out that the children were hauling recyclables in from local houses to this point so they could be sold to scrap dealers.

With the day's primary sightseeing done, and anxious to see if we could make any progress on realigning our travel home, we opted to return straight to Sagada. We arranged with Ferdinand to start back to Baguio at 9:30am tomorrow before going to the tourist office to see if they could help us contact Philippine Airways. We were taken across the road to the council offices where a very helpful chap named Mark (possibly the mayor??) did his best to help. No-one in these parts seems to have landlines and apparently calling one (for either PA or a booking agent I'd found in Baguio) from a mobile phone is very expensive. In the end it was agreed that our best course was to get to a PA booking agent in Baguio as soon as possible tomorrow and gets things sorted out in person. With that in mind we had Mark ring Ferdinand to advise a new start time of 8:30am tomorrow, but since he was very close by Mark asked him to come on over. He then explained in detail where to find the PA Booking agent's office in Baguio so that he could take us straight there tomorrow.

With that sorted we tried a new place for lunch - The Yoghurt House. The food, which in our case wasn't Yoghurt, was nice but it did take half an hour to be delivered so we opted against trying for dessert. Thus fortified we set off to do the 40 minute walk to the Mount Kiltepan lookout on the eastern side of town. It took us slightly more than that to reach the top but it certainly did give a nice view across the valley to a hillside full of terraced fields.

The Sagada terraces from Mount Kiltepan

The walk back was slowed slightly by my right knee starting to play up again, so we decided to skip plans to find the Latang Cave. We did stop in at the Sagada Brew Cafe though, for some afternoon tea. We rested up before dinner, checking out alternate schedules for PA & Scoot to work out our options. Dinner was back to the Sagada Brew - for the third time today and yes, we do like their menu.

Tomorrow it is back to Baguio on the first leg of our trip home.